#46 - The Oatmeal, on Running

If there is ever a single person to ask me why I run, perhaps I could just direct them to this link of a great comic website by Matthew Inman called The Oatmeal. Or if you're runner yourself and is currently in search of your running muse - you're welcome.

Click away.

#45 - Seremban Half Marathon 2013

Yes - yes, the Seremban Half has happened last weekend, and, to go straight to the point, my aim was very simple, yet a tricky one - improve on my PR of 2:04.44 which I had set last year here at Seremban. Since my other 21k races (PJ and Brooks) ends in a rather disappointing time, I truly believed that this sleepy town in the south would be the best place to do so.

I arrived at the hotel at around 1 p.m., checked-in, got to my room, and quickly had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant beside a 7-Eleven store. It's an easy choice really, in spite it being ran by (what I suspect) devout Buddhists, because number one: it's vegetarian, it's the healthier choice (then the obvious mamak restaurant), and it's very cheap. Surprisingly cheap. You can never go wrong with that.

After lunch only then I walked all the way to the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban building to collect my race pack. Safe to say that I am not disappointed - a Brooks dry fit vest, a bottle of lime-flavored Gatorade, a sample bottle of Shokubutsu Active Guard Sporty Fresh shower foam (my, my - what a handful), a sample packet of Salonpas medicated plaster (though how very weak I thought it felt), and a RM120 cash rebate voucher for Brooks running shoes.

Raya in a Brooks running shoe? Why not.

To all the forever lonely hearts out there, rejoice! This is the loneliest event promotion banner... in the world.

The one thing that I noticed about this year's race is the great lack in promotion. The website is not updated. A walk around Seremban harbors not even a single bunting or singages to announce the public about the event. Don't even think about overhead gantry matrix signboard displaying message about road closures or whatnot. The only promotional material that I found is a solitary poster, albeit a huge one, near the Pasar Besar.

That's it.

Anyway, on with the race. So, did I manage to improve on my PR? Oh yes - I sure did...

...all point-nought-three seconds of it.

Yes, that is all.

Hah!

"Never mind", I said to myself. Remembering that the Seremban also is the most generous with free gifts (from lucky draw), perhaps I could win something big, like a house like that lucky guy from the inaugural race.

So I convinced myself.

As I crossed the finishing line, receiving my certificate of participation, the finisher's medal, and my lucky draw ticket, I quickly made way for the super-long line for the lucky draw counter - thirst be damned. As I was standing in the queue, I saw one paraplegic guy in a wheelchair wheeling away in delight holding a brand-new Brooks dry fit shirt. "He got that from the lucky draw!" I know that I could go for something of similar type of prize as well. Daddy's feeling lucky today! Woo!

I... I spoke too soon.

Not even my winning pre-race stance helped. Damn...

#44 - The Mines Charity Run 2013 + New Balance Minimus Trail Zero

Yes, yes - despite the quasi-barefoot shoe that is featured up there, I still can't go sockless. It's... yucky.

The Race

This year's edition of The Mines Charity Run is my second time joining, and I believe is also the second edition, with 2012 being the inaugural race, and I'm happy to report that there are a lot of changes (good ones) that has been made. The only not-so-good part of it is the race shirt: a pseudo dry fit shirt that only absorbs all your sweat and weigh you down as you eat up the kilometer.

Not good. So I had to wear my own shirt.

Do I... do I... look raring to go, or retarded here?

The good part of the race however is the new route, which snakes through the housing area of Taman Sungai Besi Indah, which was for the most part... refreshing. Away from the traffic, the run was mostly idyllic. The road was mostly narrow, however.

Then at the end of the race, unlike last year's in which only the top 100 receives a finisher's medal and certificate, all runners got their medal and cert. The medal is fucking huge.

Pictured here eating away on one side of the bib, trying to get to the Subway voucher...

And as pictured above, those are all the things that you receive at the end of the race. Except for the Subway voucher, which is a really nice touch, where it was given at random to a lucky 500 runners only.

Holy shit, I'm one of the lucky runners!

Breakfast was also provided, which, just like last year's, is a packet of nasi lemak. Quite good though. And, making a usual appearance at the end of many races is the ever-popular Milo truck, giving away cups of refreshing cold Milo.

Thank youuu...

A surprising inclusion though, was this:

You can now enjoy your post-race recovery with a nice warm cup of non-fairly traded capitalism brew!

Good coffee though. (Spoiler alert: not a coffee lover)

The Shoe

First of all, a caveat: don't be fooled by the name, for that even though it is known as the Minimus Trail Zero, only two of the adjectives are true, while one falls short of expectation. The Minimus name is synonymous among New Balance users/owners with a line of minimalist shoes that are designed to offer a much more 'engaging' running experience to the runner. The shoe that I have here, as pictured above, certainly fits the minimalist bill here, and pretty impressively. Weighing at 4.4 ounces, it's among the lightest running shoe that you can buy right now.

The rubber lugs on the outsole provides a lot of feedback and feel from the ground so running in this feels almost like the real thing - running barefooted. But that then is where the nature of my complain rests: the excellent ground feel is contributed by the lack of a rock plate and, not that I am an authority of trail running, but knowing how rugged the Malaysian trail could be, running around in a shoe with a rock plate is heaven sent. This shoe, if one is not careful, could end one runner's race in blood.

However, as a road running shoe that offers a near-barefoot feel, this shoe performs admirably. But then again, there is one more thing about this shoe that I have to type in here: it feels ordinary, it feels understated, there is nothing special or remarkable about the shoe. It's just some shoe, and it's pretty forgettable. There is no part of the shoe that stands out and makes it feel special.

It's a pedestrian, hackneyed, mediocre, humdrum, insipid, bromidic, old hat, platitudinous footwear. And it's endemic to all their running shoes as well. It's no wonder then that, in spite of their tireless promotion, New Balance in Malaysia remains relatively obscure.

#43 - Standard Chartered Fun Run 2013 + Saucony Virrata

Yes - yes, the feverishly-awaited Saucony Virrata is finally in my hands.

The Race

It's a fun run, it's only 8km long, and it's held at Putrajaya in conjunction with World Youth Day. Oh, and Putrajaya is flat-lying, mostly. So there you go.

The Shoe

So, a word of thank you to Royal Sporting House for bringing in this shoe to this side of the world as it is now (I believe) widely available at all RSH-operated stores. Bought mine at Running Lab in Tropicana City Mall, but I saw the shoe at Stadium in Pavillion as well, so that's that.

It costs RM299. Cheap.

Before I proceed any further on the shoe, I should inform once again the root to my excitement towards the Virrata: before the Saucony blog announced the development of their new zero-drop shoe, the Kinvara was the only shoe that I reserve the highest praise to. It's like discovering a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow lodged somewhere within the fjords of Norway. It's the epicenter of perfectly-designed, flawless perfection. Much like Jennifer Lawrence.

Perfection!

The way everyone should see the Virrata is that it is the lighter, stripped-down, lower-profiled version of the Kinvara. And why not, because the two shoes are basically engineered and built using the same blueprint, and carrying the same DNA. But the biggest difference between the two goes down to the outsole.

Constructed mostly of deeply-carved moderately-soft foam (EVA+), it's very flexible, unlike the Kinvara which is a bit more rigid. Though it has high-durable rubber on the heel (XT-900) and the forefoot, where most wear usually occurs, it will be of little importance to me because I'm quite the heavy underpronator. So I'm expecting the much-softer exposed foam to wear out quicker than I would like it to.

Although Saucony markets this shoe as a zero-drop shoe, the amount of padding (or cushioning) that you get from the sole unit, all 18mm of foam, it somehow doesn't feel like it is completely level. But that's just me though as countless other professional reviews has confirmed the zero-drop claim as true.

Otherwise, to recap, this shoe is light, is pretty responsive, generously cushioned but not too much that it kills my pace, and is very flexible so as to somehow closely mimic the 'barefoot' feel. Of course, when I say mimic, it doesn't at all feel anywhere near barefoot-like. Ground feel is pretty much muted. But what you're lacking in that department is completely made up with responsive cushioning. As much as I love the Merrell Bare Access, I don't think I'd be able to do 21km in that shoe. My leg will tire sooner than I'd like it to. The Virrata though feels like a perfect candidate to take me on a much longer run.

Apart from that, my only complain regarding the shoe is the lacing system, which harks back to the lacing system of Kinvara 2 - it's kind of complicated. I don't feel like I could get a secure fit with the lacing system, although 8km of considerably high-paced running on a Sunday morning in Putarjaya has proved otherwise.

Final verdict? Barring the lacing system, the Virrata is a brilliant shoe.

#42 - Milo Malaysia Breakfast Day Run 2013 + Merrell Bare Access

Oh wow - it has been quite some time, isn't it? Ah well, since my inner muse is still vacationing in Timbuktu or somewhere, I have to make this a short entry, so I'm doing a two-for-one entry this time around. As the title suggests, this post will be about the Milo Breakfast Day Run at UPM Serdang, and my review of the Merrell Bare Access (the old model).

The Race

UPM, being UPM, and speaking from my experience with the 2011 edition of the Mizuno Wave Run, the route was unforgiving all the way. First there was a slight inclination, then a big drop, then a slight inclination, then a very big climb, then a gradual decline, then a climb... you get the idea.

Oh and how I have come to totally not enjoying routes with loops (thanks to Brooks Half Marathon). The psychological stress of seeing people running ahead of you running just beside you heading on the opposite direction can be very overwhelming at times.

Apart from the race, which was neatly organized (it's in UPM anyway so it should be pretty controllable), the breakfast though was far from satisfying. Or healthy. Or properly prepared. Or priced proportionately. Or palatable. I bought a packet of nasi dagang, which has the consistency of pulut, and it came with a packet of kari ayam, which was super oily.

It's shit.

The free Milo though was excellent.

The Shoe

It's awesome.

Lightweight, lots of ground feel but with a hint of protection (so if you stepped on a small rock you'll feel it prickling your feet, but you won't get a cut), and despite built as a quasi-barefoot shoe with not much else between your feet and the ground, the foam on the outsole does provide a decent amount of cushioning as well.

But largely because it is lightweight. Oh mama do my feet fly in those!

My only complain with this shoe is the outsole - since it's straight-up foam and not entirely covered (or protected) with high resistant rubber, I have a feeling that this shoe will wear out pretty quickly. I have seen the latest incarnation of the Bare Access, and this time Vibram rubber covers the entire outsole, which should help with wear. But because Vibram's are quite weighty on its own, I have a feeling that it will add a bit to the weight of the shoe...

And it is! The old Bare Access tips the scale at 5.6 oz, while the Bare Access 2 weighs in at 6.2 oz. Small difference, but when you're running in the shoe, that small number makes a world of difference.

Apart from that small issue, this is a very good shoe. Proper barefoot runners may disagree with me, but I am just a newbie runner who only just recently started to convert to natural running form, so this shoe works the best for me as an introduction to natural running.

(Runner's World did an article about natural running, but it is known as Qi running. Too 'new age' for me.)

#41 - Kuala Lumpur 10K Road Race: a Question Posed

I should point out first of all that as an educator, I truly believe in the notion of 'there is no such thing as stupid question'. But lo and behold, expect human ingenuity to triumph in the face of it as it once again prove that none should go gentle into that goodnight...

(The real meaning to that phrase has lost me)

While on the way to getting my race shirt for the KL10K Road Race at the OCM Building, a man posed me an incredulous question. Note: read the following question in a condescending tone.

"Kenapa ramai betul orang masuk larian ni? Apa yang best sangat masuk larian ni? Ada menang keta [his pronunciation] BMW ke?"

Words fail me.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

#40 - Boston Marathon explosion - and will it change the sport from now onward?

It was supposed to be a glorious day for many marathoners and runners, as well as fellow Bostonian,  as we all celebrate the 117th edition of the oldest marathon race in the world. What was not foreseen however was two separate, deadly explosions taking place near the finishing line down the Boylston street. Amidst all the confusion and sadness, and anger, brings me to a question I never thought I would ask in regards to with a marathon, or running, race.

Sports, as in an ideal world should be, should bring us all together in a sportsmanship-camaraderie that knows no bounds of gender, skin colour, religion background, or political leaning. I've seen how the backlash was like towards marathoners (in general) in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy that took out last year's New York marathon. I fear that we runners might all be in a bubble.

Now that this horrifying and totally shocking event took place at what was supposed to be a celebration of the triumph of human spirit and togetherness, what will the next, and future, running races look like? Will it still be the same as it is?

Or will running races go through it's own post-911-level paranoia and closes in on itself?

It's too early perhaps to ponder on this question, but this event really affected me in a deep way. I hardly know any of the runners that was involved in that race, but as a fellow runner, this turn of event shocked me as well. My thoughts goes to all those who were affected by the event, though this may be nothing compared with the valiant effort of the security forces and medical personnel right there at ground zero. Trust me - if Boston is like only 100km away from where I am right now, I would have been there.

Be strong fellow Bostonian and runners.